Karasuba ni kaku tamazusa no kokochi shite kari nakiwataru yūyami no sora

烏羽に書く玉章の心地して
雁鳴き渡る夕闇の空

Roma-ji: Karasuba ni kaku tamazusa no kokochi shite kari nakiwataru yūyami no sora
English Translation: Like a letter writ
on a black crow's feather, so
it all feels to me,
as the wild geese cry and cross
through the sky in evening dark.
Meaning: It feels like a letter written on a crow's black feather, as the wild geese cry their way across the sky in the gathering dark.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 421

Headnote: "Hearing wild geese as night falls"
The topic is hearing wild geese as night comes on. The geese cross the evening sky crying in their line, but their shapes are lost in the darkness, so that it feels like a letter written on a black crow's feather. Drawing on the tradition of likening a line of geese to the writing of a letter, the poem compares the geese in the dark to characters written on a black ground.
Karasuba ni kaku draws on the story in the Nihon Shoki of a state letter from Koguryo written on crows' feathers, which could not be read. The figure of the geese as tamazusa, a letter, continues in 423 and 424.

First line, “karasuba ni”: on the black feather of a crow, recalling the story of black writing on black, impossible to read.
Second line, “kaku tamazusa no”: tamazusa is a letter, the line of geese likened to its writing.
Third line, “kokochi shite”: with such a feeling.
Fourth line, “kari nakiwataru”: the geese crossing the sky as they cry.
Fifth line, “yūyami no sora”: ending on a noun, the sky in the evening dark where the geese can hardly be made out.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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